Ten years of the euro: and the winner is....

Euro-area citizens and residents have selected the winning design of a new euro coin that will be issued next January to commemorate 10 years of euro banknotes and coins. Close to 35 000 people voted in an online competition from a choice of five designs that had been pre-selected by a professional jury following a design competition among citizens from the whole euro area. The new commemorative 2-euro coin will be issued by all euro-area Member States. It is estimated that some 90 million of these coins will be put into circulation.

The winning design symbolises the way in which the euro has become a true global player in the last ten years and its importance in ordinary people's lives (represented by the people in the design), trade (the ship), industry (the factory) and energy (wind power stations).

The selection of the coin design

Citizens of all countries of the euro-area were invited to submit designs via a dedicated website during a three-week period in May. A professional jury selected five from among the more than 800 designs submitted.

These five were put to a public web vote among citizens and residents of the euro area between 6 and 24 June. Close to 35 000 participated in the vote. The winning design received 34 % of the votes.

The winning design was created by Mr Helmut Andexlinger who is a professional designer at the Austrian Mint.

The results for each of the five designs and the names of their creators are indicated below.

N° 1 Helmut Andexlinger Austrian Nr of votes: 11 892 % of votes: 34%

N° 2 Serena Macaluso Italian Nr of votes: 11 481 % of votes: 33%

N° 3 Ingo-Michael Edelmann German Nr of votes: 4 548 % of votes: 13%

N° 4 Simone Gamberoni Italian Nr of votes: 3 685 % of votes: 11%

N° 5 Stefano Lenoci Italian Nr of votes: 3 005 % of votes: 9%

Commemorative euro circulation coins

This is the third time that all euro-area countries will issue a euro coin with a common design on the national side. The first was the commemorative 2-euro coin issued to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome in 2007 and the second commemorated 10 years of Economic and Monetary union and the creation of the euro as book money, in 2009.

Commemorative coins always have a value of 2 euro and are put into circulation in the whole euro area, and they are often the subject of keen interest from coin collectors.

For more information on euro coins and the euro go to: http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/euro/cash/coins/euro2012_en.htm